As part of the SPJ Legal Defense Fund, a special account providing journalists with legal or direct financial assistance in defending press press freedoms, I designed a special edition journalism ethics poker set for the Legal Defense Fund's annual auction. Coming from my own ideas, the set was created using a previous ethics card set that the Society had developed. I also used my own personal poker chip design and labeling software for the 180 individual poker chips.This design was based on similar graphics that the Society used to market the 2010 SPJ National Convention where the auction took place. An old cigar box was used to give the set a "classy" element. To maintain branding, I worked with our graphic designer to create an inside label to showcase the name of the set and the convention logo. This project was created and implemented on my own personal time outside of work.
At the convention, the "Collector's Journalism Ethics Poker Set" raised $110 for the Legal Defense Fund. After the auction, a bidder for the set approached me and ask if I could make a second edition of the poker set at the same price as the winning bid. After seeking approval, I agreed to create the set under the ethical stipulation that it could look nothing like the orginal version. The "contemporary edition" was crafted using a metalic casing, a lesser number of chips (but with dice), and a different label design. Both sets raised a total of $220. Each edition also came with its own, individually tailored certificate of authenticity.